


Company til she comes again

by girlwithabird42



Series: Once more for the ages [27]
Category: Uncharted (Video Games)
Genre: American Girl doll - Freeform, Family Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-10-03 23:09:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20461037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girlwithabird42/pseuds/girlwithabird42
Summary: Cassie receives an old toy of Elena's.





	Company til she comes again

Cassie’s a responsible kid. Even at a young age, Elena and Nate have never had any reason to second-guess the leeway they’ve given her until one afternoon at a university lab.

In Cassie’s defense, she was holding the two ceramic figures very carefully, but accidents happen, and they slipped from her fingers at the same time.

Nate manages to catch one, but the other hits the floor and cracks.

The lab assistant glares and Nate opens his mouth to explain as Elena quickly walks Cassie out into the hall, her daughter’s lower lip wobbling.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Cassie repeats over and over as Elena crouches down to her level.

“It was an accident, baby, these things happen. That just means we have to be extra careful next time, mommy and daddy included.”

Cassie nods, still white-faced, but resolved.

“Like it wasn’t anything that couldn’t be fixed with epoxy,” Nate complains to Elena later. “He was acting like we should be banned for life.”

“It was kind of dumb of us to let her handle it. Let us get blacklisted professionally because of _us_, not her.”

Though it wasn’t really their intention, Elena supposes it was inevitable Cassie is as passionate about history as them. How could she not be, strapped in her carrier and seeing the ancient wonders of the world?

They just need to find something a little more age-appropriate, Elena thinks in the dead of night while Nate snores beside her.

The answer is surprisingly obvious. Elena doesn’t know why she didn’t come up with it to begin with.

Waiting for the right time to call Colorado, mom picks up.

“Hey could you do me a favor? There’s a box on the closet floor in my room. Could you mail it to the house so it’s there when we get back? The one marked ‘Kirsten’.”

\----------

Nate’s enjoying the gleeful abandon in which Elena tears into the package from her parents.

“Are you sure this is a present for Cassie?” he teases her as Cassie looks on.

“Shut up. I haven’t looked at this in like twenty years,” Elena says, pulling a doll with a pioneer dress and a bonnet out. “Hey Cassie, this is Kirsten. She was mine when I was bit older than you, but I’d like you to have her now.”

Cassie gently runs her finger over the doll’s braids while Nate peers in the box. It’s littered with more dresses, a tiny carpet bag and what he swears is the world’s smallest McGuffey’s Reader.

“What _is_ this stuff?”

“Seriously?” Elena tears her eyes away from Cassie. “It was a whole thing where they made dolls to teach you about American history. The Revolution, World War II, you name it.”

“You were a _nerd_,” Nate says lovingly.

“_You_ were a nerd,” Elena counters, face going pink.

“It’s crazy they made this kind of stuff.”

“Welcome to being a girl in the eighties,” Elena laughs and pulls out some slim white books from the bottom of the box. Thumbing through them, “From what I remember, they were less paternalistically racist than _Little House_.”

Nate pulls a face, “God, that show was sickeningly saccharine.”

Elena raises an eyebrow, “I’m talking about the books.”

Nate shrugs, “You know American history isn’t really my thing.”

Cassie does a good job of keeping Vicky away from the smaller pieces of her new toy. Even though she can read now herself, Nate and Elena still do bedtime reading and Cassie insists on the first Kirsten book

Nate bites his tongue from peppering in his commentary, but when the girl gets lost in New York, he can’t help himself. “I get it, being lost in a new city is tough.”

“_Daddy_,” Cassie rolls her eyes and snuggles closer, the doll’s plastic arm digging into Nate’s side.

Thankfully Cassie is out like a lamp by the time Nate finds his real moment to protest.

“Marta dies?” he hisses to Elena, working at the kitchen table. “Are we trying to scar her?”

\----------

“Please clean up your room before Sully gets here!” mom yells from across the house.

Cassie rolls her eyes and wants to yell back ‘clean up yours!’ but resists the temptation.

She shoves the weird assemblage of art supplies into boxes and throws her blanket back on the bed to make it look like it’s been made. She starts shoveling piles of laundry out the door so she’ll have to trip over them and deal.

A bunch of too-small t-shirts are moved to reveal an old friend. Kirsten is a little more smudged than when mom gave her the doll and Cassie feels like she outgrew the toy kind of quick. Still, doll Kirsten went on many more boat trips and was hugged through several storms; Cassie has fond memories with her.

She finds the box for safe-keeping and there’s barely just enough room in the closet for it. Silly as it is, Cassie gives the doll a quick kiss before tucking her away.

One day, Cassie will pass her onto someone else too.

**Author's Note:**

> Elena wound up with Kirsten for the classic 80s reason: they have the same hair color. Also listen to _American Girls_ podcast! It's a delightful reread of all the series by two historians!


End file.
